In the Agile community, many people have heard of the Prime Directive promulgated by Norm Kerth in his book Project Retrospectives:
“Regardless of what we discover, we understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job they could, given what they knew at the time, their skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at hand.”
It speaks strongly to the value of Confront – of attempting to see reality as it is to the best of our ability, and to stay out of the trap of judgement and evaluation when examining actions, choices, and outcomes.
You may have heard this Directive, and may even attempt to practice it in the context of retrospectives.
Are you applying it to yourself?
Self-Directive
Let’s restate the Directive for looking inward, to yourself:
“Regardless of what I discover, I understand and truly believe I did the best job I could, given what I knew at the time, my skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at hand.”
How often do you truly give yourself that level of acceptance and ownership of your actions, choices, and outcomes?
Can you apply the Prime Self-Directive more often?
Will you do it more?
When will you start?
You can do this. I can help.